Daily Meditations
Read today’s Just for Today or A Spiritual Principle A Day readings.
Just for Today
September 03, 2026 |
Humility expressed by anonymity |
| Page 257 |
| "Humility is a by-product that allows us to grow and develop in an atmosphere of freedom and removes the fear of becoming known by our employers, families, or friends as addicts. " |
| Basic Text, pp. 75-76 |
| Many of us may not have understood the idea that "anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions." We wondered how this could be. What does anonymity have to do with our spiritual life? The answer is, plenty! By guarding and cherishing our anonymity, we earn spiritual rewards beyond comprehension. There is great virtue in doing something nice for someone and not telling anyone about it. By the same token, resisting the impulse to proudly announce our membership in NA to the world--in effect, asking everyone to acknowledge how wonderful we are--makes us value our recovery all the more. Recovery is a gift that we've received from a Power greater than ourselves. Boasting about our recovery, as if it were our own doing, leads to prideful feelings and grandiosity. But keeping our anonymity leads to humility and feelings of gratitude. Recovery is its own reward; public acclaim can't make it any more valuable than it already is. |
| Just for Today: Recovery is its own reward; I don't need to have mine approved of publicly. I will maintain and cherish my anonymity. |
A Spiritual Principle a Day
September 03, 2026 |
Free to Be Authentically Me |
| Page 255 |
| "We can be ourselves in the present moment without fear or apology, without the need for approval or justification." |
| Living Clean, Chapter 7, "Awakenings" |
| As we lived through active addiction, few of us felt free to be fully ourselves. We often needed to pretend to be someone we weren't to get what we wanted or needed, and it didn't take long before we were confused about who we really were--if we ever had any idea in the first place. We were so accustomed to wearing masks that we didn't know what our own faces looked like anymore. The atmosphere of acceptance and welcome we found in NA was a breath of fresh air for those of us who couldn't breathe freely for a long, long time. The Basic Text tells us, "The masks have to go," and we notice that when the metaphorical masks come off, it's so much easier to breathe. For some of us, NA might be the very first place we have been where we suspected that we might be able to show our true selves to others. We may not feel that way in every meeting or with everyone we know in NA, but little by little, we become much more comfortable showing who we really are. The freedom to be ourselves flows directly out of the sense of security we develop by being welcomed and accepted in NA. Admitting that we are addicts was the first of many admissions; each time we show a bit more of who we truly are to our fellow members, we increase our sense of security and become free to learn even more about ourselves. We accept who we are and lose the need for approval from others. We no longer feel the need to justify our existence. The insecurity that defined so much of who we were in active addiction fades away, and we become who we were meant to be all along. |
| ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— |
| I will take off my mask and breathe more easily, knowing that others in NA will accept me for who I am. |